Childcare providers in southern Illinois say their futures are in doubt thanks to the ongoing budget impasse.
Brittany Lemons is assistant director of Bumblebee Child Care Center in Mt. Vernon. She says facilities like hers are feeling the crunch since the Illinois Department of Human Services instituted new rules on July 1st for the Child Care Assistance Program - or C-CAP -that have deeply cut the subsidies available for the program.
Lemons says some childcare centers have closed and hers may be able to last only a few more months.
"We have stopped altogether taking children who are a part of the C-CAP program because we are not getting paid for them. So, (we're) hoping that the children who do pay privately can make up that cost. But, it's just a big question that's up in the air right now."
Lemons says on July 1st, 55% of her children were funded through C-CAP. She says that number is now down to 37%.
Lemons says she knows of several mothers who have quit their jobs, taken their children out of childcare because it's too costly and gone on state assistance.